Police step up social media presence following successful pilot

Dutch police are stepping up their efforts to monitor social media use following the success of a pilot scheme in Twente.

The police force wants all divisions to have a strategy in place for investigating social media within three years, the Telegraaf reports. In Twente 20 officers have been delegated to operate the area’s social media channels on a rota basis.

The trial scheme has already had tangible results, such as successfully intervening on Instagram last week to stop a teenage girl taking her own life. ‘We want to make contact with society. That’s what people expect of us,’ Ron de Milde, who is in charge of the new media strategy, told the Telegraaf.